One of the consequences of stress on our trees is the leaf disease anthracnose which is caused by a fungal infection of the fungus Apiognomonia.
One of our recently purchased shade trees slated for planting on the north side of Main Street became stressed in the heat wave we enjoyed in late May and started to display characteristics of ill-health before it was planted. Our Forester from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation identified its symptoms as anthracnose.
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| Dolefully infected leaf. |
According to our DEC Forester, anthracnose - like many fungi - is ubiquitous in our environment and will proliferate when a tree is in a stressed or weakened condition. Antrhacnose effects deciduous hardwoods including but not limited to Ash (Fraxinus), oak (Quercus), sycamore (Platanus), maple (Acer), and dogwood (Cornus). Symptoms can include: Small dead spots on leaves, dead leaf margins and tips, brown, dead areas along leaf veins, large dead blotches between leaf veins, premature defoliation, twig death, bud killing early in the season resembling frost damage, often the lower and inner leaves and branches of the canopy show most severe symptoms. Unfortunately, these symptoms were displayed by our Red Oak making the tree unsuitable for planting in the full sun of our Main Street for both aesthetic and health reasons. Our DEC Forester has recommended shelter of partial shade and regular watering to set our infected Red Oak to rights. You can read a little about that here.
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